Apple Enforces Subscription Policies, May Impact Remote Auction House

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Update: Thanks to Hegarol for the tip. It looks like Apple hasn't changed their policies, they're simply enforcing them now.

Some time in mid-January, Apple began contacting
app developers to alert them that they're going to begin more strictly enforcing policy regarding
subscription-based applications. This covers apps available on the iPhone and other
devices offered by the company. Essentially they want to rein in
subscription-based apps like they do anything else: they want a piece of
the pie. A pretty big one, too.

Apple is said to be giving app developers until March 31, 2011 to
comply with the policies which will limit apps to using Apple’s own
subscription API built into iOS — stating that they will reject any apps that attempt to utilize their own subscription service. And of course,
if your app isn’t on iTunes, it’s going to be pretty darn hard to get it
installed on your device.

For World of Warcraft players, this obviously means theRemote Auction House,
which has optional features integrated that cost $2.99 a month. You
must have an active World of Warcraft account to utilize the
subscription service, and as of right now Blizzard handles the billing.

While you can use your browser for all of
the features, it’s the iPhone version that may come under fire with
this policy change. Apple wants to be the one handling all subscriptions
through applications on their devices, which in turn would net them 30%
of any revenues from said subscriptions.

The question then is, how exactly does this policy enforcement affect the
Remote Auction House? Does it at all? Perhaps there’s a loophole
Blizzard can use since you’re able to access the subscription features
via a web browser — essentially only offering an “extension” to access
those services through the application. After all, you’re not paying a
subscription for the app itself. Or are you?

I haven't used my WoW app on my ipod in a long while, but I seem to recall having to sign into my WoW account to use it (which is far more than just the auction house features). If that's the case, then the subscription itself would seem to be covered under the same policy.

The article suggests that Apple wants to be the ONLY ONE handling subscriptions but that is NOT the case. They don't accept it if an app only supports subscriptions outside the app. They want to enforce developers who do that do use the In-App purchase option as well.

Hegarol, at the time of the story breaking the general consensus among the tech reporting world was that Apple meant "our way exclusively". It wasn't until quite a while later that Apple clarified their stance on the matter to the less draconian version.

There is no telling if that was the case initially or if apple later softened up a bit for PR purposes as even the Apple fans were lambasting them.